Sunset Boulevard (NR)

1950, 110 min

Billy Wilder directed what may be the best movie about movies ever made. A down-on-his-luck writer (William Holden) becomes involved with Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a former silent film star clinging to past glory. ("I AM big. It’s the pictures that got small.") Filled with eerie parallels to real-life Hollywood: Swanson was herself a former silent film star and Cecil B. DeMille plays himself as the director with whom Desmond hopes to stage a comeback. (“All right Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”)